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Our Top Priorities: Fun and Responsible Gaming

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Published: 19 October 2018

At Springbok Online Casino we put responsible gaming at the head of the class. To us, gaming has to be simply a fun form of entertainment. The highs and lows we feel as we play are similar to the roller coaster rides we still love even in adulthood. The excitement we feel when we play online casino games is palpable. In order to keep the excitement level high and to avoid gaming for the wrong reasons, we support all efforts to educate the public toward responsible gaming and to help the public deal with poor gambling decisions whenever they pop up.

One of the greatest challenges to every online casino is creating an atmosphere of such fun gaming that everyone who plays there will be following the practices of responsible gaming.

South African Responsible Gambling Foundation

We doff our caps at the efforts of the SARGF to bring responsible gambling to public notice. Gambling should be an innocent entertainment, no different than going to the movies or watching television. However, most of the activities we do every day can become dangerous habits. Some people overeat and some undereat. Some drink too much, smoke too much, and watch television too much.

A little dessert never hurt anyone but a large dessert every day and possibly a little more later on makes us crave sweets and often makes us put on weight. A little alcohol is fine but too much alcohol damages our internal organs and in some cases leads to dependence on alcohol. Even a cigar after dinner is probably okay, but smoking one or two packs of cigarettes every day is known to lead to medical problems.

The SARGF, to its credit, says that gambling can and should be fun. A little gambling can be a relaxing pastime. It can be a safe way to add some excitement to one’s daily routine. But too much gambling leads to financial problems, family problems, and work problems.

Three Causes of Problem Gambling

The SARGF cites three primary causes for irresponsible gambling all of which Springbok Casino recognizes and has programmes in place to combat. The three causes cited by the SARGF are recklessness, ignorance, and psychological disorder. At Springbok we add a fourth cause of problem gambling: seeing casino gaming as gambling rather than as gaming.

Recklessness

This is perhaps the most common cause of problem gambling. What begins as an innocent spin of the slots reels or roulette wheel becomes a habit. There are two basic ways Springbok Casino helps players overcome the tendency that some but far from all players have. One is simply to play for free. We offer all our games in free play mode. You can play for free for as long as you like. Many players who have been close to gambling instead of gaming switched to free play and found their reckless gambling activities change to the far happier gaming activities.

Springbok also offers self-exclusion. Any player can simply tell Springbok to exclude them from gambling for at least one month. Players may also limit their monthly deposits. Even if you want to continue playing, if you have limited yourself to a reasonable sum for online casino gaming per month, the programme will softly tell you to wait until the next month begins.

In this way, we can formally budget ourselves for casino gaming entertainment even as we budget ourselves for movies, restaurants, vacations and the like.

Ignorance

Some gamers do not realize how the games they play work. They feel that if they play long enough they’ll win their money back. This does happen sometimes, of course, but it often does not happen. Some players have to learn how to set a fair and reasonable gaming budget for themselves. Some players need to learn to treat online casino gaming as entertainment, plain and simple.

Psychological Disorder

We would like to think that this cause of poor gambling judgment is far down the statistical ladder. Nevertheless, we recognize that some people do have deep seeded psychological problems that become known when they gamble.

It is unlikely that self-exclusion would work on these people. Springbok Casino supports all efforts to identify such gamers and to exclude them permanently from our casino and to encourage them to seek professional help.

Just as no one thinks that we should ban pizza even though some people eat far too much, and few would ban beer even though some people drink far too much, and no one thinks we should ban cars even though some people drive too fast, few would say that we should ban all casinos even though some people gamble too much.

Fun above All Else

At Springbok, we try to get the message across at all time that we see our casino games as a conduit to gaming fun. It is an entertainment. We offer free play as a demonstration of our commitment to always see online gaming as fun, as gaming and not gambling.

Technically, if you put some money on the outcome of a game, you’re gambling. But if the amount you put on the game is so small that you can easily afford to do so, then it is part of the fun, it adds an element of excitement that free play cannot deliver.

Prohibition

One suggestion that some opponents of gambling in any form make is that casino gambling should be prohibited entirely. The American experiment from the 1920’s as to prohibition—in the American case it was prohibition against alcohol manufacture, sale, and consumption—turned the vast majority of Americans into law breakers.

There are some who claim that gambling is actually hard wired in our brains. It is this natural desire to take risks that lead people to start businesses, to challenge nature in many ways, and to risk rejection in employment or romance. We like to gamble. So prohibition would not work, it would simply send gambling underground.

In the United States, sports betting was functionally prohibited in most states. Americans bet on sports illegally to the tune of some $80 billion annually as of 2017.

Kudos to the SARGF

Springbok salutes the efforts of the SARGF and remains dedicated to working with the foundation to increase responsible gaming amongst our players.